Is Nigeria, And Its Light Sweet Crude, About To Be Drawn Into The Mali "Liberation" Campaign?

Precisely a month ago, when we last looked at the ongoing French campaign in Mali, whose diplomatic justification before the people of the "democratic" world was the eradication of "insurgents", and various other "Al Qaeda rebels", we asked readers, rhetorically, to look at a map of Mali and tell us what they see.

"Nothing. Mali is one of the most irrelevant countries in West Africa from a resource standpoint, and what happens inside of it is certainly irrelevant from a greater geopolitical standpoint. What is more important is what this map doesn't show, specifically the name of the country located a few hundred miles to the south: Nigeria.

Now Nigeria is important: very important. Or rather, Nigerian light sweet, one of the highest quality crudes in the world, is. And thanks to the "bungled" French peacemaking attempt, the US now has a critical foothold in what is the most strategically placed stretch of desert in Western Africa, a place where US "military trainers" will now be deployed at will. Be on the lookout for curious escalations in violence around the capital Abuja, and key port city Lagos, in the coming months once the current Mali fracas is long forgotten."

It appears that Nigeria will be drawn into the fray far sooner than even we expected following today's news that Islamist militants from neighboring Nigeria abducted a French family of seven, including four children, in northern Cameroon on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said. Next up: Al Qaeda is mysteriously discovered to be aiding and abetting "evil" insurgent Malians out of Nigeria, and the French campaign, with the generous and stealthy support of the US, shifts slowly but surely southward to its ultimate destination: liberating all that Nigerian light sweet oil.

The risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa has risen since France sent forces into Mali last month to help oust Islamist rebels occupying the country's north.

"They (French family) have been taken by a terrorist group that we know and that is in Nigeria," Hollande told reporters during a visit to Greece.

The seven French nationals were abducted in Dabanga about 10 km (six miles) from the Nigerian border near the Waza national park, where they had spent the night in the extreme north of Cameroon, an area where Westerners often go for holidays.

Armed men on motorcycles intercepted the family in their car at 0700 GMT and forced them to drive to the nearby Nigerian border, an aide to the governor of the province told Reuters, and the four-wheel drive vehicle was later found abandoned.

Islamist radicals in northern Nigeria now pose the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil-producing state.

Logic therefore dictates that the developed world should promptly intervene and protect Nigeria from Islamist radicals. Because we have never seen this movie play out before.

Western governments are concerned that Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists may link up with groups elsewhere in a region with poorly secured borders, especially al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM given the conflict in nearby Mali.

"I see the hand of Boko Haram in that part of Cameroon. France is in Mali, and it will continue until its mission is completed," Hollande said.

"It shows that the fight against terrorist groups is a necessity as they threaten all of Africa," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told reporters.

Cameroon Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said he could not confirm the kidnapping report for now.

Charles Gurdon, managing director of Menas Associates, a London-based risk analysis consultancy, said there had been growing concerns over a possible spillover from Nigeria into the north of Cameroon.

"Traces of ... Boko Haram had been discovered (in Cameroon), but the Cameroon government has been covertly trying to undermine the threat," he said.

On Sunday, seven foreigners were snatched from the compound of Lebanese construction company Setraco in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state, and al Qaeda-linked Ansaru took responsibility.

Northern Nigeria is increasingly afflicted by attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militants. Ansaru, which rose to prominence only in recent months, has also claimed the abduction in December of a French national who is still missing.

And once the developed world liberates Nigeria of its Islamist, Al Qaeda-funded terrorist scourge with sheer brute, military force, it will be only logical that as payback it gets perpetual rights of crude extraction and operation in Africa's top oil-producing state.

Krugman must be pissing his pants hardon and all.
Just think of all the broken windows.
Eri wait... The huts have no windows
OK all the torn misquito nets
Cracked coconuts?
Dead monkeys....
No PETA would get riled.
Oh shit!
What in the name of Paul can we break?

Actually, when I lived in West Africa during 2010 and 2011 my Toyota "Troopie" was a formidable machine. It would go absolutely anywhere, loaded or empty. It went places a Hummer would never reach principally due to the width.

Tried to arrange to bring it back to the U.S. but it would not have been allowed into the country. :(

U.S.-based Toyota dealers would also not order it for me from abroad. :(

Toyota trucks in the W. Africa configuration should be at the top of any 4x4 aficionado's must-try list. Drive it once and you will have a hard time walking away.

Not trying to be racis, but having lived in the region, I can say for absolute fact if they have not pulled it off already it is not gong to happen.

West Africa has tremendous resource wealth, but most of the countries are poor in terms of domestic brain power and their leaders far too corrupt. Too many wars, in some places they still eat each other (such as in Liberia where I spent most of my time) and those with smarts have already moved abroad. Some move back after getting a proper education but most, after having tasted life elsewhere, say screw it. Much of the modern development in that part of the world is due to foreign assistance, i.e., Da White Man.

My boss was convinced the place was cursed due to all of the pagan idol worship, witchcraft and such.

He makes a good point:

Exodus 20:5

"You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me ... "

And they might tell the DC quota-monkey-in-chief that there actually is such a thing as a shovel ready project (and the associated jobs created), Americans just tend to screw things up (at least when their government is involved). After all every Cabinet of Ministers in west Africa makes 1600 Penn look like a Clan meeting, and yet despite the rampant corruption there were a hell of lot more jobs created when the Chinese started demanding shovel-ready projects for their comparatively small (African) stimulus...

Sell iCrap, toxic sheet rock, and poisonous pet food to gullible US consumers in exchange for their manufacturing jobs and some of Uncle Ben's finest two-ply, flip the future dated shit wipes back to Uncle Ben (and by extension the US taxpayer) and commit to $30 billion in new refinery capacity in Nigeria... Creates demand to Chinese iron-ore investments in Australia, work for Chinese steel mills in China (since the US wanted cheap iCrap), and jobs for excess Chinese pipe fitters overseas... China then locks up a key step in what is (currently) exporting a very desirable raw material from an emerging market to a developed market for value addition...

Even if the US thinks it can "win" some conquest of Africa, repairing refineries damaged by the locals is always cheaper than building new ones, Chinese investments won't be expropriated at the behest of the US because the even the threat of China cutting off the US-bound iCrap could lead to destabilization in the US (and Obamaphone riots)... So the Nigerians will sell their crude to the new (local) Chinese refineries for domestic value addition, the big evil Exxons and BPs of the traditional "evil empires" are cut out (of the expansion) of the downstream market in Nigeria, so no jobs for US steel mills and the under-employed fat-assed union pipe fitters who love shopping at Wal-Mart...

Funny thing is that the devil is supposed to offer a desirable "deal" in exchange for one's soul (and Imperialists- regardless of whether they are white or yellow, are viewed as such there), apparently the US hasn't figured out the "desirable deal" part yet, and the Chinese devils are at least offering better "deals" with the proceeds of their pilfering of American wealth and jobs.

The people of Africa and the middle east long for freedom and the west longs for their oil and gold...so we shall bomb the shit out of them and free them from the heavy burden of their oil and gold...for it is said that one can not truly find freedom until they let go of all their possessions.

Well, you certainly have a point doc - East and West are both abusing them badly - but please don't think that Africa and the ME are full of enlightened freedom-seekers. Pristine they ain't. (With exceptions, of course.)

What's pretty insulting about poking holes in the lie the west is trying to sell us when they say we are helping to bring freedom and democracy to the African and Middle eastern countries when in reality we are just after their oil? I don't understand what is so insulting about pointing that out.

Sorry but this is postcolonial projection at its worst. Most Middle East and African societies are what I will simply call traditional, and your notion of freedom is both antithetical to theirs, and impossible in it. Sorry, that's just how it is. No different from trying to impose it on the English 2000 years ago, it's a threat to their entire way of life and they will fight against it and they will win.

One thing you need to understand about Islam is that it has always had at its core an urban-rural dialectic. I will omit the details, the point is that even if the more bourgeois urbanites may favor something sort-of resembling western liberal democracy, their rural countrymen most certainly will not, and Muslim history is the history of rural uprisings sweeping over the towns and cities and restoring Islamic conservatism.

Understand this and you will understand more about Islam than 99% of our fellow Westerners.

Wtf is wrong with people that they don't understand the freedom meme that the establishment is trying to cram down our throats ?

Bush invaded Iraq claiming we were bringing freedom and democracy to them when in reality we were after their oil. The media is trying to sell us the lie that the Arab spring is about people wanting freedom and democracy. So the statement " The people of Africa and the middle east long for freedom" is just a sarcastic repeat of the western lie.

Actually soils are poor in all but a very few spots (Zimbabwe, South Africa, and most of the Rift Valley area including Uganda and Rwanda). Unfortunately those places all have high population densities that are still rural and most farms are subsistance instead of commercial. Food security for Africa? Maybe we should tell them they should stop having 6 kids per woman. Ecological Disaster in 30-40 years as populations continue to explode despite wars, AIDS, famine, and endemic corruption. Why anyone would have children in that kind of environment is beyond me, but then again my IQ is higher than the 65-70 average for the continent.

It is all about Israel in the end and if we let China get to Africa first then the West doesn't get to benefit. Without Western benefit then the Israelis are in an ever tighter and tighter spot and they know China doesn't give a fuck what the children of Iaasc and Ishmael do to each other.

I spent lots of time in Northern Nigeria in the 60's and even then there was plenty of Islam-on-Christian violence. The Northern 1/3 of Nigeria might as well be a separate country, profoundly Islamic ( as in Mosques that are over 500 years old). Everybody was armed - in those days it was with old Russian and French guns. Now, who knows. The North has always literally hated the South, not only because of the Christian 'holier than thou' attitudes and the extremely unwelcome ativities of Christian missionaries, but also because of deep racial prejudice that goes both ways, because of ancient tribalism issues ( the North is predominantly Hausa while the South is predominantly Ibo, with the Yoruba kind of in the middle. However, the real source of hatred coming from the North is that the Southern politicians have always - always - been the only ones to benefit from the enormous sums of graft that have spun off of the oil industry, while the North has remained poor as dirt. So it is no exaggeration to say that if the Hausa could somehow find a way to commit total genocide on the South and in the process grab hold of all that oil, they wouldn't hesitate. My guess is that these days they have plenty of help and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see massive sabotage of oil facilities as well as large-scale 9-11 style attacks on major Southern cities.

They did fight two civil wars over those very issues didn't they? And yet the "country" remained intact as a political entity. The Hause know damn good and well that they're benefitting more by playing the Yaruba and the Igbos (and 200 other smaller ethnic groups, but mainly those two) off of each other and siphoning off a good deal of wealth in the process.

5) some kind of forced, redistributive -ology or -ism. Any -ism will do.

6) vehicles

Combine first five ingredients in a secure location. Simmer on low for a year or so. Be careful not to boil over all there will be village raids, mass rape, and genocidal dismemberments. Just before the pot boils, place the mix on vehicles and cart/boat to object of confiscation. Unleash your little agents. Enjoy!

Given that a lot of hedge funds are probably licking their chops over the trade possibilities, I'd love to see at least one give a fraction of their profits to the Nigerian refugee population that will come from the fallout.

Damn. You got me feeling a whole lot better primarily about myself as I was just on my way to dispense all of the acquired knowledge of the universe free of charge to an unwitting business prospect and that very ever so specific area had been sorely lacking over the past several years.I have been duly enriched and shall pass it along with aplomb.I am confident it will seal the deal.Insights.

Hollande is that imperial whiter shade of pale now representing forty years of extractive oil/uranium empires, sleight of hand, like Pax Amercana baloney in ME, which is now boomeranging into fundamentalist knee jerks of contrarian, totalitarian, banditism presented as "terrorism"; mutual sleight of hands on both sides as its a sign that a blind population of african peasentry realises its been sold down the river; not knowing in their blindness what the real solution is; thus victims of blatant machiavellian geopolitical gamesmanship from all sides.

We are in a John Le Carre book like Russia House; grey men playing grey games and black scalawags crying "Allah is great!", to achieve their own agenda.

Pathetic dismemberment of western civilization's true values for short term power play. Greed like this requires for the Guillotine to be reinstated.

The more engaged the US is in all these shitty little countries, the more likely the coming attack on Iran's distributed nuclear energy programs will be via tactical nukes, I'd imagine. From the neocon perspective, Iran has to happen both for 'Eretz Israel' (coming Israeli aggression into Lebanon and Sinai) as well as to get Iran's oil in private, western, bank-owned hands.

It seems clear that Russia isn't going to go to the mat for Syria and I expect they're not going to be willing to defend Iran - their ability to project power is actually pretty limited, and I suspect they know that efforts to destabilize them will pick up speed, and by the same folks who arranged to transfer much of Russia's natural resource based wealth into the hands of a dozen or so multi-billionaires... by sheer, sheer coincidence, almost all of them Jewish [neat trick in a country that's less than 1% Jewish... I know, I know... it's disgusting racism to point out disproportionate Jewish $ and power, although its still cool to talk about "white" or "male" $ and power - funny how that works, ain't it?].

Anyway - the US military is essentially a frog in the frying pan... being used by large international banking/corporate interests, many of them motivated by nationalistic and/or messianic Zionism, all of them motivated by greed and love of power to act as Vikings - to plunder the oil, gas and mineral wealth of various lands and get them in private hands. After the collapse of the USSR, the speed with which natural resource wealth was privatized was nothing short of amazing - suggesting long-planning. I hate to appear to be on the side of the mouth-breathers, but the fact that they were mostly Jewish, notwithstanding what wikipedia might say, is a notable fact to pin to the board. No, "they" aren't all Jews or Zionists, and yes, most Jewish folks are not neocons... but most neocons are Jewish and/or Zionists, and for all of this stuff, you have to suspect that Israel [and it's owners] are somewhere in the mix.

When, exactly, did Americans become okay with their military being used, in essence, as "world policeman" - the misleading term which obfuscates the fact that it's not about truth and justice, but, again, about stealing wealth?

World Government, of course - one in which banking power is increasingly consolidated. If I know the Zios [and I do], it is at that point that they will begin to squeeze out their extra-tribal confederates... it won't do to have a 'multicultural' World Government in praxis... although the Potemkin appearance of such will always be maintained.

There is so much evidence for the idea that an international 'elite' - centered around the large banks - is working to grab hold of real, natural resource wealth as the myriad fiats collapse, that one must be willfully ignorant not to see it. Propagandists are being installed left and right, and the danger of a so-called 'false flag' to generate support for the draft needed to physically occupy Iran is a real danger now - 2 years ago I would never have believed they'd go for a draft, but as I model it, and as I read, it seems clear that it is necessary for the banks/oil companies to grab that oil, but to do so, they will need a truly spectacular attack.

Just a guess, but Ehud Barak met with Rahm Emanuel in Chicago last year. As Barak was intimately involved in 9/11, I would hope that loyal elements of the CS are paying very close attention to what Mr. Emanuel is doing.

They are not - of course.

Again - the currency wars, and the ongoing efforts to get more oil/gas/mineral wealth into the hands of the large American and British oil/gas concerns are almost without doubt part of a global banker plan to consolidate power and wealth - real wealth... not what economics refers to in its theories as wealth.

And I now see a real danger of tactical nukes being used in Iran, and/or a very large "false flag" sufficient to get Americans behind a new draft to go fight the 'evildoers.'

Energy wealth in the hands of large corporations, themselves largely controlled by large international banks, is absolutely necessary for the imposition of a global banking system/currency.

Who will control that - certainly very largely should surprise no one. The American subservience to Israel and what may be quite fairly called 'International Jewry' (yes, as Ford noted - he was no blind anti-Semite) is not effectively separate from the broader, and largely non-Jewish efforts to engineer the creative destruction of global currencies and sovereigns.

They will appear as the saviour to the world, and it seems likely that the BIS is much more the epicenter of the planned global banking system than the IMF or WB.

But for this to happen, American blood and treasure must be utilized to get physical control of natural resource wealth in Africa, as well as Iran, and to get it in private hands.

In this sense, 'who' is dictating American foreign policy/warfare becomes important, and, it is abundantly obvious that the pro-Israel crowd [very much including the Christian Zionists, who are not nearly focused on enough by those motivated, a priori, by an unreasoned anti-Semitism].

In the short term, this control needs to be exposed, for if it is not, the next step may well require the US military to more fully examine how it is being used by the political branches, and to what extent the clandestine services are really advancing the agenda of a consortium of bankers, oilmen, and yes - Israel Firsters.

Have friend who is an electrician - works for a german company if the Ghan - says they already have big contracts in Syria - I asked why - he said they always put these in place prior to sending in troops.

Who needs the CIA - just ask the contractors which country is next to be invaded

This argument that the US is going to war to "liberate" other countries oil always leads me to one question.

If these wars are to "get" their oil why don't we ever "get" it? I understand we spend enormous $$$ assuring the Persian Gulf stays open but we always have to PAY for the freakin oil we supposedly went into these third world hellholes to "take". How come we NEVER "TAKE" it? I promise you that regardless of who runs these shitholes they will sell the oil to us for the same price regardless - hell it's going into the corrupt bastards pockets anyway.

Half the sheeple scream that we're "going to war for oil" but we never GET THE DAMN OIL! I agree the wars are asinine, unneeded and in fact fought for reasons far beyond those stated but this meme is STUPID STUPID STUPID. Someone please point out to me which of the vast number of shitty little wars we've fought in the last hundred years resulted in us "taking" someone's oil?

Whom do you mean by "we?" If you mean you and me, then no, the point has never been for "us" to get the oil. If you mean western oil companies, doing business in US dollars, then yes, we do get the oil, every time.

Post-national Corporate power has never been hung up on matters of national sovereignty.

Let's be clear - WE - is basically NATO. Which is basically a Mafia operation lead by the God Father - America.

So when we invade Iraq, Libya etc... the God Father has to share the loot - so French, Brit, Canadian and other captain's get some oil rights - the US might not always take the oil but its other corporations feast on the carcass in some way or other.

why can't we just admit it : we're broke, we need petrol and we'll take it !

and we'll be over with funny justifications trying to explain we're bringing democracy we don't even have to people that never asked us anything ! OVER, dead westerners in stupid wars, we'll just steal the resources and the first Aqmi / alquaeda / al whatever to show up 2 miles around is being droned away !

LET'S FACE THE UGLY TRUTH, WE WANT, WE TAKE, END OF THE STORY, FUCK YOU AFRICA, FUCK YOU MIDDLE EAST !

Mrs Obama arrives in South Africa for the first major overseas tour without her husband, wearing an orange and black jacket by Nigerian-born and London-based designer Duro Olowu. The jacket is from the designers Fall Winter 2010 collection. Mrs Obama has previously worn Duro Olowu’s designs in 2008, 2009, 2010 and continues to rock Duro Olowu’s collections. Michelle Obama is such style icon, she always gets it right and is not afraid to wear bold colours and prints.

The Triad of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have THE worst (not some of the worst) demographic statistics on the planet. Aproximately 70% of Niger's population for example is under the age of 25, Mali's infant mortality rate is over 107 per 1000 and Burkina Fasoans have a life expectancy of 53.

Why is it that all the statistically worse off countries in the world are the ones where women have total fertility rates between 6 and 8? They're just perpetuating the cycles of poverty, misery, and dwindling resources per capita.

It's pretty simple. (I live in a similar country) The women know they will probably outlive their husband. There are no provisions for any type of pensions, old age assistance, medical care, etc. They know the only way to avoid starving to death in a gutter is to have (hopefully) at least one caring and reasonably successful offspring. And it takes 5 or 10 children to get one of those alive in adulthood.

Does this mean the FBI can finally go after those nigerian scammers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJOuvEcarNs THey say 419 no be thief its just a game, so.... Take Nigerian Oil its just a game we land dem Marines, they kill you scamming mo fo's its not invaision its just a game, lol

Excellent find. I missed this. This explains a lot. The list of countries that have started doing this matches up very well with the list of countries that turn up on the US media's naughty list, or on the military hit list, or that suddenly have trouble with "Islamic" mercenaries.

The Developed World or Mafia with the US as the God Father have been pillaging the world for centuries.

And they wonder why there is terrorism.

Well if you lived in one of the countries who's resources are being stolen by foreign corporations under the watchful eye of some SOB dictator installed by the Mafia, you'd be pretty goddam pissed off too. See Confessions of an Economic Hitman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8

Of course the Mafia sees this terrorism as an flea on the back of the elephant - some families get kidnapped and killed, a few car bombs here and there, a few thousand NATO soldiers killed, thousands killed in 911.... so fucking what - those are only people.

At the end of the day this world is run in thuggery. Our prosperity is build on thievery and industrial scale murder.

Mankind is a vile, sickening species. The sooner we are wiped out the better.